Aguero treble sends Man.City into round four

Sergio Aguero scored a hat-trick as Manchester City staged a dramatic second-half fightback to avoid an FA Cup shock with a 4-2 win over Watford.

The Hornets stunned City as they raced out of the blocks and opened up a 2-0 lead inside the first half-hour through Fernando Forestieri and Troy Deeney at the Etihad Stadium.

City fought back after the break with Aguero striking twice to level and the killer blow came three minutes from time as Jonathan Bond allowed an Aleksandar Kolarov shot to squirm through his grasp.

Aguero completed the comeback in the final minute and City left the field to a huge sigh of relief and with their quadruple challenge still intact.

Watford, 33/1 to win at the start of play, had given them an almighty scare and highlighted more defensive concerns along the way. Giuseppe Sannino's men, 16th in the Championship, had just one player who cost a fee in their starting line-up - Deeney, for £500,000 - and they had not won away since October.

City's bench alone cost £84million but it was Watford who looked the more composed team before the break.

City were lethargic and if there was any complacency on their part it was ruthlessly exposed.

Deeney gave an early warning of intent with a shot that flew over before Forestieri hit a free-kick into the wall and Cristian Battocchio was wayward from the rebound.